Soundtrack

[lollardfish]

Listening to Springsteen's album of Seeger songs ... (which means American folk songs, not stuff Seeger wrote, but stuff Seeger recorded and made his own).

15 miles on the Erie Canal...
We've hauled some barges in our day
Filled with lumber, coal and hay

And I thought, my commodities class needs a soundtrack. Help! Please recommend songs. I'm not bothered if they aren't the exact commodity, but if they address the kind of commodity I'm talking about. Like for Cod, Stan Rogers' "Tiny Fish from Japan." It's not about Cod at all, but that's kind of the point (the overfishing of the Grand Banks). Where I have dual commodities, I'd be happy to have two songs.

And feel free to recommend better songs for things I've already listed. My goal is to find songs that deal with commodity. Not just an item. But humor is good too. These need not be modern songs, but I do need to be able to find recordings of them.

1a. Cod: "Tiny Fish from Japan" - Stan Rogers
1b. Salt:
2a. Silk: "China Girl" - David Bowie (just to be Orientalist).
2b. Horses:
3a. Fur:
3b. Soldiers (Mercenaries): "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" - Warren Zevon
4a. Alcohol: Help. What's the perfect beer/whisky/etc as commodity song. TOO MANY CHOICES
4b. Grain: "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate" - Arrogant Worms
5a. Religion: "Missionary Man" - Eurythmics
5b. Sin: "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" - Charlie Daniels Band
6a. Spice:
6b. Power:
7a. Gold and Silver: "Money" - Pink Floyd
7b. Coinage:
8a. Sugar:
8b. Rum:
9a. Tobacco:
9b. Timber: "Erie Canal" - Bruce Springsteen
10a. Wool:
10b. Cotton: "Cotton Fields" - CCR
11a. Slavery
12a. Tea: "Two for Tea" - ??? and/or "Pennyroyal Tea" - Nirvana
12b. Opium

Comments

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's any reason to limit yourself to just one song; the fact that many songs have been written about a topic is a partial indicator of its cultural importance.

Hey, I just remembered that I've got a good Steeleye Span song about sheep! I'll send that too.

Are you planning to make up a CD for distribution to the class? If so, you could put multiple songs per topic on it, play one during class, and assign listening to the others as homework.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Too many songs will overload the students. I am planning on making a CD.

On the other hand, these songs are just fun. They aren't actually relevant, except for the 19th century context (where we do have some actual songs), but that's a very, very, very marginal part of the course. They are going to have PLENTY of homework already. :)